Privacy Policy

The new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018 It will introduce new responsibilities to companies but we will continue to collect information, as we did before, in a safe and secure manner. This privacy policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, and shared.We collect and process personal information with your consent to operate our business and meet our contractual and legal obligations.

INFORMATION COLLECTED

We collect data (information) about your students based on the information you supply to us.

We collect our own data on the host families we use and share with you in various ways. We collect theirpersonal information when they first apply to us, when we visit their homes, when we re-visit and when they voluntarily update their personal details. We may also have photographs of the families and their homes which we may use on the booking confirmation forms we send you. Because what is collected is termed Sensitive Data and we direct what we collect, we are determined as a Collector of Data. We will collect only the minimum of information needed and will remove any unwanted or unneeded data.

USE OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We use personal information collected to:

Add information to the Booking Confirmation Form sent to hosts, students, agents, schools through various channels

Add information to a Group Summary Report if your student is part of group

Booking taxis to transfer your students

Respond to your comments, questions, and support queries, and provide general customer service

SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We share your personal information with these third parties, for example

Host families when we send the booking confirmation

Youwhen we send the booking confirmation

You when sending a Group Summary Report

With local authorities when accommodation a Private Foster Care student

With taxi companies when booking car transfers for students

When legal required to supply information to any government agency

SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Hosts International Ltd takes all reasonable steps to help protect your personal information in an effort to prevent loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. We ensure that all your information is kept securely in our offices. We are registered as a Controller of Data with The Information Commissioners Office and have been since the year 2000.

TRANSFERS OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your information is held on Cloud based databases within the European Economic Area only. When sending personal information to any third party, we will always

Ask who (if any) the information will be shared with

Who will have access to that information

When will they destroy that information

STORAGE AND RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide services requested by you, or for other essential purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, and enforcing our agreements. Because these needs can vary for different data types in the context of different services, actual retention periods can vary significantly. The criteria used to determine retention is that for accounting purposes we will retain all financial information for seven years so it is not unreasonable to retain all supporting information for the same period of time. We will then destroy or anonymise it.

YOUR INFORMATION CHOICES AND CHANGES

If you wish to ask for access, correction, or deletion of any of your data held by us or a change in the way we use your data (for which we reserve the right to charge you a fee, where permitted by applicable law), please do call us to discuss this. However, we may decline requests that are unreasonable, prohibited by law, or are not required to be honoured by applicable law.

YOUR EUROPEAN PRIVACY RIGHTS

We adhere to applicable data protection laws in the European Economic Area, which, if applicable to you, includes the following rights:

If we are processing personal information based on your consent, you have a right to withdraw consent at any time for future processing;

You have a right to request access to, rectification, or erasure of your personal information, or to transfer or receive a copy of your personal information in a usable format;

You have a right to object to the processing of your personal information under certain circumstances; and

You have a right to lodge a complaint.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we make any changes to this Policy, we will change the “Last Updated” date below or by providing such notice about or obtaining consent to changes as may be required by applicable law.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about this Policy, or if you wish to lodge a complaint about our privacy practices, please contact info@hosts-international.com

Hosts International Ltd

Last Updated: May 2018

About Hosts International

Hosts International was set up in 1988 and its main function was, as it is today, to provide quality home stays to visiting foreign students, direct and from colleges and agents.